There may or may not turn out to be a statistically
significant difference between hospital and homebirth if you run the numbers, but there is absolutely no reason not to address it.
Not exact matches
Most studies of homebirth in other countries have found no statistically
significant differences in perinatal outcomes
between home and
hospital births for women at low risk of complications.36, 37,39 However, a recent study in the United States showed poorer neonatal outcomes for births occurring at home or in birth centres.40 A meta - analysis in the same year demonstrated higher perinatal mortality associated with homebirth41 but has been strongly criticised on methodological grounds.5, 42 The Birthplace in England study, 43 the largest prospective cohort study on place of birth for women at low risk of complications, analysed a composite outcome, which included stillbirth and early neonatal death among other serious morbidity.
«We found small but meaningful
differences in developmental outcomes
between late preterm infants and full term groups, which if applied to larger populations, may have potentially
significant long term public health implications,» says lead author Prachi Shah, M.D., a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's
Hospital.
Research from Australia has found no
significant difference between planned home birth and
hospital birth in terms of the risk of PPH [1].
In an analysis based on actual place of birth rather than planned birth location, they found no
significant differences in fetal, neonatal, or perinatal mortality
between in -
hospital and out - of -
hospital births.
An earlier study reported no
significant difference in rates of lower respiratory illness and associated
hospital admissions
between those never breast fed to those breast fed for three months or more after adjustment for maternal smoking.6 However in this study, the breast feeding data were collected retrospectively and categorically at five years (never breast fed, < 1 month, 1 — 2 months, 3 + months), and the true effect may have been obscured.